Issue #3: Paradise Found Part 2 - Nirvana

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Doxx got another attachment, this one about Good and Evil. She texted and asked if she should read it, and no one said no, so she did, and we all went to Hell.

Chance was there, but his powers weren’t.

I punched a demon thing and stole one of her daggers. That might have made me a volunteer for being Champion of Evil. Heckle and Jeckle showed up with their Law and Chaos and offered us a way out, which I kept telling them I wan’t accepting being either of their champions.

Doxx broke the glass lake and let out the trapped souls, which Heckle and Jeckle scooped up with us. We jumped from there to Nirvana. Like Heaven, not like the old classic rock band. The dagger melted, and the angel-thing called Angelique explained more about champions without demanding we choose. She said if I were her champion and I went bad, I’d know it, so I jumped on that so I can do good and everyone will have warning if I turn villain. She gave me a feather.

<p.e.>
After our brawl in P.E. class Chance decides to send me flowers. I cannot accept them even though I believe I understand why he sent them. Words I would accept, gestures without explanation or understanding is not something I will support especially when I am not the one that he should give these flowers to.
My budding friendship with Spooky is worth more to me than helping Chance salve his ego. It has been too long since I have had a friend. I surprise myself by how much I want this after I have tried so hard not to want anything, to not need anything. At the beginning of class I was at a point where I no longer cared about being safe. I wanted to break things. I wanted to break myself. Somehow letting loose and then being stabbed by Spooky (even if it only was an illusion) was cathartic. I needed it in a way I still don’t understand. It was like having been out all day in the heat and getting that first glass of water.
P.E. is my new favorite class our instructor was very kind in that he edited the videos that were captured of us in our ‘exercise’ to not demonstrate the magnitude of our powers. -
<the>
Brian (Spinel’s friend I think) tells us that a “Mr. Please” runs the docks. That the docks used to be very very bad and then after Mr. Please showed up got very quiet. Quiet not being a thing that the police investigate Brian was concerned that this silence was only concealing the illegal actions overseen my Mr. Please and provided us with a link between the Terrible Tuna restaurant and Mr. Please. I can’t believe that people would go to a restaurant that names itself terrible but maybe that was the point.
With this information and a need to have more of a presence on social media we decide to go on our first patrol of the docks as a super team. I studied a lot of Kid Awesome’s videos as he is a master at all things social. With shot and scene notes in my head and a cell phone to capture things with we begin our patrol on the block around the Terrible Tuna.
We find nothing of note and end up talking to an employee of the Terrible Tuna in the alley behind the restaurant. Through a series of events we end up getting a meal in the restaurant and a meeting with Mr. Please.
Mr. Please admits to being a criminal. He confesses and says that he is running guns and is handling prostitution and that the cops leave him alone.
He also lets us know about The Eclipse. They are a supervillain group and believes that they are behind the incident with Raging Bull and trapping most of the city’s heroes inside of energy domes.
He offered us more information in exchange for a future favor. Apparently, James reminds him of himself when he was young. I don’t think that this is a good thing even though it may be extremely accurate.
He tells us of 2 members of Eclipse a set of brothers named Lucas and Nigel Carlyle. They are Hard Light (dresses in white) and Stray Shadow (dresses in black). Their parents were unremarkable villains who were killed by an overzealous hero named Hustle leaving Lucas and Nigel orphans.
Mr. Please also shows us that we need to acquire the services of a skilled hacker. He points us towards GG EZ who we have already had some small contact with.
Mr. Please seems very reasonable and as we are unlikely to be able to make a case against him we leave ending our patrol.
I am left with some good shots of the team in action that showcase our personalities well. I will edit it down and see about getting it posted soon.-
<email>
The evening as I am working through the editing process (which is much harder than I had thought!) I get a text with a link to a “Treatise on Good and Evil”.
The last time I read one of these links (the Treatise on Law and Chaos) the group that was to become the Bold and Chance ended up in some other dimension faced with an ambiguous choice between 2 unexplained options.
Being very curious but not wanting to involve the team without their knowledge I text them letting them know what had happened and asking for their thoughts.
Either I blinded myself with my own eagerness to see what would happen or I honestly forgot that most people are normally asleep when I sent the text. In any case I followed the link and this time the Bold and Chance ended up in a hellish landscape. The skill is filled with smoke and the ground is some type of thick glass with people trapped under it pounding on it trying to get out. There is a tower in the distance.
The avatars of Law and Chaos are there as is a flying woman with horns who I believe now to be the avatar of Evil. There are also a swarm of, things, closing on us. I would describe them better but I can’t. I know they were there but my memory refuses to give me details about them.
We chose to fight and work well together as a team. Tempest lets us know what we should focus on. I clear a space free of the swarm so the others can work. Spinel punches the horned lady and James jumps the horned lady to the twin avatars of Law and Chaos. The twins link hands and the horned lady melts into blood only to begin reforming by the tower.
The twins offer us a way out. I want to go but can’t or won’t leave. There are still people trapped here. I don’t know who they are or why they are here but I can’t leave without trying to help them. Everyone else has left and is safe. The twins remain but I know somehow that this space won’t harm them. Maybe it was P.E. class maybe it was fate but I reach for all the strength I can find, gathering it until I feel like I will explode and punch the glass.
It breaks.
I begin to fall.
I see that the people a trapped in some type of lake and are reaching up to the air.
I feel the cloak of one of the twins float out and wrap around me and the freed people. Then we are somewhere different.
I feel different.
In the time between heartbeats I find myself in a grassy field staring at a winged woman.
She hugs me. I am still in shock as I thought I was going to die and so hug her back (that whole not wanting to have needs thing, remember?).
She says her name is Angelica and that this ia Nirvana and that we came from Abaddon.
She says that what I did was a selfless act and that she wants me to be her champion. A champion of good.
I am happy, confused, shocky, disoriented, buzzing with the joy of still being alive and I know that this is not a place where I can make a decision. Plus I am only a teenager. I need to talk to someone about it.
I tell her that I need to think about it. Maybe my Imam can help me sort through this.
Spinel takes Angelica up on the offer. I think she has her own concerns about being a good person and this provides her with a way to know that she is still on the side of good.
I am struck again with how lonely I have been and that somehow I have ended up in the middle of a group of wonderful people. Maybe the world is better than I had thought.
Maybe I am better than I had thought.
We will see. -
<art class="true">
Seraphena (a Rockstar in Japan, she really is big in Japan), Spooky and I work together on a sculpture assignment.
We end up embracing our inner freakiness and make a surprising beautiful Platypus skyscraper thing. I don’t understand it rationally but I love what we made together.
Saraphina’s powers as classified as ‘Dumb’ a rating I haven’t seen before. It turns out that what she can do is inspire others. The fact that some stupid white guy in a lab coat sees that as dumb pisses me off. Who is he to say what is good and what is bad. It isn’t shooting fire from his eyes but what she can do is useful and helpful. I understand more why people believe that the classification process of Perk / Paragon is broken as it reflects the views of only the privileged. -
<lunch>
At lunch Cosmos tells Spinel that her body is perfect for combat and mating. I think he was flirting with her. If so space flirting sucks. He could do with a class on having more swag.
Also earlier we found out that our principal is a vampire. I guess I am getting more used to the super-life as this isn’t even a thing.
I also got Cosmos’s number. You never know when things might be useful.-
<words>
James offers me a lift to the mosque for my meeting with our Imam.
I find myself missing the simplicity and structure of my life before my change. James is more than he lets himself be and I am concerned about him and his path even though I know it is no longer my place.
Meeting with our Imam I share the experience I have with him. He thinks that it is a good thing.
Then James surprises me by asking about whether I still want to marry him.
It seems that he missed me as well. My heart swells but I let him know that I will only marry a righteous man and that his stealing needs to stop.
He is a little stunned (which I feel is fair considering what he just sprung on me) but he rallies quickly and decides that he should get a job doing deliveries (apparently, this pays very well).-
<spinel’s>
Spinel has a date with Rebellion (I have no idea why she does but she does).
I end up helping Spinel choose what to wear (I have no idea how I got here but I am here) and luckily I have GG EZ’s contact info as Spinel really doesn’t have anything to wear.
With GG EZ’s help we get her something that will work for the date. -
<being>
When I get the chance I take the token that Angelica had given me to contact her and accept her offer of being a champion of good.
Calling on the token I find myself again in Nirvana and the rescued people seem to be doing much better.
I am getting married, I have friends, and I helped people. I feel like I am going to break from feeling so good. It has been to long since I Have been a part of something. Since I have belonged with someone else.
Angelica is a great person to talk to. We talk for hours about everything.
I accept her offer and am now a champion of good.
Something she says leads me to think that Chance (who had been very sad lately and seems to have lost his powers) needs to talk to Mr. Meow.
Angelica shows me that my powers can do more than I had thought and that I can grow wings.
Back in school going between classes I show my friends (yes I can use that word even if it doesn’t feel comfortable yet) about my new talent. Kid Dynamo asks if I can fly.
I had never thought of it so I try.
It turns out I can fly (maybe it is because of all the happy thoughts).